A diabolical smile smears across Iltar’s face as he tells his friend the generalized idea, “Eliminate the council…”
Cornar’s eyes widen, “Don’t you think that’s too much?”
“No… That’s how I plan to resolve the two lies into one. You see, no one knows that you and I are the only ones who know the truth. You came to me, and not to the constantly debating council. But I’ve told everyone that you and Krindal delivered those ancient texts to them, which is a likely action. Technically they should be notified of such things, then the Order of Histories.
“However, the historians of Soroth weren’t notified. An act that would surely prove an uproar,” Iltar smirks a grin then continues. “What I’ve told the others plays perfectly into why we will move against them. That and the incident with the acolytes.
“They are a dangerous group of men that needs to be eliminated; especially Alacor. They are men that secretly conspire for gain at the expense of the nation.”
“So you will appear to be the hero of Soroth…” Cornar says the words with thoughts flowing through his mind. “When we come forward to the public I will say you convinced me to confess and expose them.”
With that said, Cornar strokes his chin and his face shows he is thinking the deception through. He rustles the whiskers on his face which have grown into a thick beard. Often on previous adventures the warrior had left his facial hair untrimmed. Why Iltar never quite knew, and his friend never said.
“Kenard was given a secret charter,” Cornar continues, “Even though we put the crew and expedition together, the council was giving the orders from behind their secret chambers. You knew the secret mission, as did I, since I had found the ancient texts. We gathered men that we knew would be loyal to us and our charge; after all, we are some of the most notorious adventurers in Soroth.”
“Good,” Iltar nods his head then asks with narrowed eyes, “Do you think Kenard will play along with it? I’ve never truly trusted that pirate.”
“Promise him his ship,” Cornar states plainly. “He will comply.”
“All right…” Iltar thinks it over in his head, “So according to our new cumulative lie, the three of us knew the truth. The council masked the expedition with a search for apprentices.
“I told the others Alacor wanted it for political power, something that could be easily believable for most citizens of Soroth,” Iltar adds as they concoct the lie.
“What about the other council members?” Cornar asks, “What is their motive for following Alacor?”
“Power, influence. Most of them were brought on the council by Alacor, a share in furthering their own dominions. A play off of what I have promised to my friends once I obtain the amulet.”
“That sounds probable…” Cornar thinks the false events over in his head. “We need to silence them quickly,” the warrior continues, “That will be the hardest part. But we can use Midar and Cordel, both of them are still acting as guards for the Order.”
“I’ll leave the strategizing to you, my friend,” Iltar smiles knowing that his intention was welcomed by Cornar.
“Once they are dead, we can reveal ‘the truth’,” the necromancer continues. “We will need to plant the original scrolls and the books in Alacor’s chambers within the Order’s hall. I will keep the copies of them, so I can continue to reference them. The books will be out of our reach, but I don’t believe they will contain any further information. However, I’ll read through them once more before we return home.”
“What are we going to tell the citizens of Soroth concerning the island?” Cornar asks, his mind looking at every possible angle in making the lie as real and believable as possible.
“We will tell them a variation of the truth, but none of the answers we found. That primitive creatures attacked us, and the dragons could not speak. No one has seen a dragon, so they can’t really fight us on that point.”
“What about the others?” Cornar asks, thinking of the mages aboard.
“They all have motives to help see this through, and when it comes down to it, they are doing their duty to protect Soroth. Hagen can be the most prominent one expressing those views to the public; earlier he voiced how dangerous it was and questioned if it was worth it. We can say we all felt that to some degree. Hex can sway either way, I can tell he finds the journey intriguing and wants to press on but is still weary of it. Amendal… all he wants is to destroy them. All of them exhibit a portion of what we need to accomplish this and cover our tracks in further orchestrating this expedition.”
Leaning back and staring at the ceiling, Cornar adds, “My men will go along with whatever I say. Tilthan will kill for treasure, and his jackals will follow him. He doesn’t even know why he’s here, or who is the originator of those orders, so we can easily manipulate him.”
Still smiling, Iltar remarks at his friend’s willingness and eagerness, “You seemed determined about this Cor, a little more than I initially expected.”
Shifting his gaze from the ceiling to the necromancer across the room, Cornar spits out, “I have my life on the line, as well as my family’s. I’ll kill to protect them. Returning to Soroth is a deathtrap at this point; for me and them.”
Iltar nods his head and they both continue to contemplate their new goal in silence. After several moments Cornar gets up from the small seat and walks toward the door.
“All this scheming has given me an appetite. I’m going to see if our chef has prepared anything in the galley,” Cornar says as he unlocks the door and shuts it behind him.
Cornar’s words linger in Iltar’s mind as he continues to think over the lie in his head, “This really is a deathtrap; but it’s necessary to spring it and destroy it now rather than later. The turn of events on the island proved more devastating than I had planned, and then the lack of information only adds to the need to return to Soroth.
“I had hoped the dragon would unravel the entire mystery of the ancient weapon, taking out most of the work for me. But that wasn’t the case, that beast had only given me information I could have determined myself. His only definite answer was confirming the amulet was on Merda and not Draco Isola. Then there was that vague clue about the whereabouts of the activating scroll, “…‘the scroll once rested with a group of humans, but that Order has since been destroyed’… It could be anywhere.”
Still sitting on the bed, Iltar leans forward and pulls the chest out from under the table. Once exposed, Iltar opens the heavy lid and reveals the contents; the necromancer focuses briefly on the texts at the left of the trunk.
The words from the dragon echo in his mind that whatever was written was a fake, and the thought crosses his mind for a moment but is immediately pushed away.
“There is no way these could be fake… I only misread what the scrolls stated. But perhaps there’s something in these volumes that will shed light on that missing order of men.”
Clearing his mind, Iltar reaches down for the first book and nestles himself back into the corner on top of the bed. He opens the hard leather-like cover to reveal the title page of the tome: “The Thousand Year War. A narrative compilation by Dusel Nadim, Volume One.”
Paying no attention to it, Iltar flips through to the preface.
* * * * *
Later that afternoon, a light wrapping at the door calls Iltar’s attention away from the ancient tome in his hands. Putting it aside the necromancer swings his feet out of bed and walks over to the door, unlatching the lock.
“Yes?” Iltar grumbles.
“The others want to talk,” Cornar’s voice muffles through the wooden door.
Iltar slowly opens the door and looks at his friend with a raised brow, “About what? Are they eager to find out what we’re planning next?” his tone has a sense of interest in it.
“It seems so. Hagen and Hex said you wanted to speak to them later. I just ran into them while each were on their way to the galley. They must have been sleeping all morning,” Cornar chuckles as he relates
the last sentence.
“We’ll use Kenard’s chambers. Eventually I want to talk to him and Tilthan, but I want the five of us to speak alone first,” Iltar turns from the doorway. He reaches for the book on the bed and places it in the opened chest, then locks it.
The deadly duo walk single file through the narrow passageway. Cornar leads the way as the two men make their way to the galley and the stairwell leading to the main deck; while Iltar stops to poke his head into the galley. The necromancer sees Hagen and motions for him to follow from the galley’s doorway.
Once the mages reach the stairs, they can hear Cornar on the main deck hollering up to the captain, who is busy with his men at the helm.
“Where’s Hex?” Iltar asks Hagen as he ascends the steps.
“I don’t know,” Hagen responds, still with food in his hands. “I think he’s probably on the main deck,”
“Well, find him and get Amendal while you’re at it. We will meet in the captain’s quarters.”
As the two mages come onto the main deck, a lively commotion catches their ears: Several of Cornar’s men are sparring on the quarterdeck with their bare fists and others are watching them, including Hex. The two warriors, Hemrin and Shen, are rapidly exchanging blows and their companions eagerly cheer for them.
Watching the warriors, Iltar smiles and shakes his head at the scene.
“There he is,” Hagen says with his mouth partially full and rushes past Iltar to Hex’s side, who has his back turned to the aft of the ship.
Hagen taps the wizard on the shoulder and the illusionist motions with his head towards the leader of the expedition.
At this same moment, Kenard comes around the corner into the covered landing which leads below and to his quarters. He fumbles about a key ring as he passes Iltar, with Cornar close behind him.
Just as Cornar passes him, Iltar turns and follows the two men down the narrow passageway to the captain’s quarters.
The captain opens the door and is the first to step inside his cabin. He stands with the door on the inside of his quarters, holding it open with one hand.
“Thank you,” Cornar responds and walks past Kenard and looks for a place to sit.
“I want to talk to you later,” Iltar snarls in a hushed voice. “Make yourself available.”
“As you wish,” the captain responds in a sarcastic tone. He shakes his head while Iltar is not looking and leaves the two men alone, letting go of the door which causes it to swing shut from the rocking of the vessel.
After a moment, Hex is the first to enter the room. The initial two men have already occupied the only chairs in the space, which leaves the wizard to choose the next best seat, the captain’s bed.
Hagen and Amendal come in together and separately move to either side of the room. The illusionist walks over near Cornar, still holding the food prepared by the chef earlier that day. Amendal eyes the bed as he closes the door and moves to sit on the opposite side where Hex is patiently waiting. The oldest mage presses down on the cushion with both hands and then reclines back, folding his arms across his chest.
Seeing that everyone is comfortable and ready, Iltar looks at each man in the room before speaking, “Things have not gone according to plan. I hoped that the dragon we captured would have given us more information; however, he gave us little more than what the council and myself discovered in the scrolls.
“He only confirmed that the amulet was in Merda, which was the other location marked on the elven map. That, accompanied by the loss of seven of our men to the island’s dangers have set us back. I see no other course than to return to Soro–”
“You told us that already,” Hagen interrupts with his mouth half full. “What’s this plan you mentioned this morning concerning the council?”
“Quiet Hagen,” Hex interjects from the bed. “Let Iltar finish.”
“Each of those men are a threat to all of us. And those closest to us,” Iltar looks to Cornar who is the only man in the captain’s cabin with a family. “There is no doubt that when we return they will capture and interrogate me. Their immediate suspicions will be that I took us to the Dragon’s Isle, which they would be correct.
“Then they would hunt everyone down who was with me. We can only imagine what would happen then.”
Iltar pauses and lets the delusion sit in their minds before continuing. He can tell each of his friends are in thought, except for Cornar who already knows where this meeting is headed.
“So I gathered you here to decide what to do. Returning to Soroth is our only choice if we are to succeed. Even though our charter could allow us to hide out in several port cities, we would only give the council more time to search the island we just left and Merda; not to mention those necromancers would know exactly where to find us. Then our adventure will be for naught and the men that died would have lost their lives in vain.”
“But how would they know we were on the island,” Amendal rises up and looks at Iltar as if he was stirred from a nap.
“There were other dragons that saw us,” Cornar speaks up, “Iltar and I saw them from the mouth of the cave, and one flew over the mountain range. I wouldn’t be surprised if they saw the ship in the bay; however whether they would ever encounter and divulge that information to another expedition is purely chance. But it’s not something I want to leave open in our defense.”
“Why do we have to go back to Soroth?” Hagen asks, “Why not someplace else, what’s so important there?”
“First, we still need to go to Merda. I know little about that place, nor did I have enough time to conduct a thorough research before we left on this trip. Like I said, I was planning on the dragon giving us more information.
“Second, we need more men. Men that will be loyal to us and not stab us in the back, so to speak. Those men are on Soroth. One of whom, in fact a former apprentice of mine, is half elvish. He grew up in Keth and his mother is an elf from Merdan. She probably is not old enough to have lived in the city Merda, but that connection might be beneficia–”
“Why didn’t you bring him along in the first place?!” Amendal spurts out, “Were you even thinking when you put this expedition together?!”
Iltar laughs at the old conjurer who is comfortably resting on the bed with pillows propped under his head. “If I could, I would have brought Balden. Unfortunately, he is employed by the Baron of Sereth. As its well known, the baron has a tight grasp on those he employs. Balden cannot even leave his castle until his contract is up, which is roughly thirty years from now.”
Hex’s eyes narrow at Iltar, he can tell the necromancer is plotting something. “I can only imagine what you have in store dear friend…” the wizard rubs his chin as he continues to stare at Iltar. “You’re thinking of an offensive aren’t you?”
“Whoa!” Hagen spits out the last of the food in his mouth, “You’re saying kill the council?!” he looks down at Iltar and then to Cornar at his side. The warrior looks up at him and returns a simple smile.
“Yes!” Amendal cries out as he sits up in the bed, a fire burns in his eyes. “I want those fools to wither in pain until they die!”
“Eliminate the council. With them dead I will be the sole survivor and the head of the Order.”
“What do you intend to do with that?” Hagen asks
“Restore balance,” Iltar looks up to the illusionist who is putting his bowl down on the table covered in sea charts. The necromancer continues, “Do you remember what Amendal told us that night in the tavern? He said that each seat of the council occupied only one master of each of the magical art–”
“Finally, I can rip them limb from limb!” the crazed conjure interrupts Iltar and plays out an imagined scene with his hands.
Ignoring Amendal’s rambling, Iltar continues, “Not only will we be doing Soroth and the Order a favor, but we will ensure our safety and allow us ample time to prepare to go to Merda. I will storm that place with an army if I must.
“By returning to Soroth we elimin
ate the council, keep ourselves safe and further the expedition. I don’t know how long it will take but we will set out again to reclaim the amulet in its entirety.”
“But,” Hex asks, “How are we going to kill the council and get away with it? I mean it’s a good idea, but I don’t see how it can be done.”
“I’m leaving that up to Cornar, but we will have to get them all together. It will be the best way to get rid of them. Once we arrive the council will summon me to the hall, then to our chambers. That is where we should strike.
“As far as getting away with it, all we must do is tell the authorities what we will tell Kenard and the others of the expedition. The evidence is already inside our Order’s halls. But before we move forward, I need to know that the four of you are with me on this.”
“I am,” Cornar responds in seriousness
“We’ve come this far,” Hex puts his hands on his knees and leans forward. “I can’t just back out now.”
Cackling in the bed, Amendal is clearly enjoying the thoughts of destroying the men that corrupted the Order he had been a part of for most of his life.
“Amendal?” Iltar asks, jarring the old man from his imagination
“Of course! We must make this vessel go faster!”
“Well Hagen?” Iltar looks at his friend standing near Cornar.
“If I don’t go along I’m dead. If I do I’ll probably die in Merda along with the rest of you…” the illusionist says in his high pitched voice. “So, yes I’ll help.”
“Good,” Iltar says sharply, “Now we just need the captain and Tilthan to agree to our plot.”
“And if they don’t,” Hagen squeaks out, “Does that mean we’ll throw them overboard?”
Chuckling, Cornar rises from his seat in anticipation of what Iltar would have already asked; the warrior moves towards the door, opens it and steps into the covered corridor, hollering for the captain; all the while, the four mages laugh or chuckle at Hagen’s comment.
After several minutes Cornar and Captain Kenard enter the room. Kenard closes the door, knowing what they have to say to him is important.
The Dark Necromancer Page 21
